S I X T Y - O N E

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The castle was quiet as Adeline made her way down the halls. After spending a late night patrolling the corridors, Adeline was on her way back to the Ravenclaw tower where she'd hopefully manage to get some sleep. It was thankfully a Friday night, so there was a small chance that she'd be able to sleep in that Saturday morning.

As Adeline passed by the windows, she could catch glimpses of the starry night sky. It was a rare clear night in October, but Adeline still felt the chill breeze through the Hogwarts corridors. She instinctively wrapped her arms around herself, trying to keep herself warm despite the fact most of her legs were bare and freezing cold.

Then she felt a hand grab her waist.

Adeline whipped around and grabbed her wand out of her messenger bag. She was about to start hexing the person and only stopped herself when she saw George smiling brightly at her. "Well someone's a little paranoid there," He chuckled, lowering Adeline's raised wand hand. "I thought you'd be happy to see me."

George was still wearing his school uniform, but his Gryffindor tie was loose around his neck and his white shirt was untucked from his pants. His eyes were tired, but his smile was still as bright as ever. "You know I'm always happy to see you, but I feel like you should be asleep..." Adeline muttered, smiling a little to herself as George wrapped an arm around her waist to bring her close against him. "You've seemed exhausted lately, especially after Quidditch practices started. You didn't need to wait up with me, you know."

"Quidditch practice got called off early tonight, so I figured I'd come surprise you after your patrol," George responded with a shrug. When Adeline didn't respond immediately, he quickly became worried that he had done something wrong and didn't know what. "You don't mind...right?"

"No, no I don't mind at all," Adeline answered quickly. "It's just...I don't want us to get into trouble. It is past curfew."

"No wonder they made you Head Girl. You're even strict about the rules with your wonderful boyfriend."

"Well when your wonderful boyfriend likely holds the record for the most detentions held in Hogwarts history– save for his twin brother – I have a right to be hesitant."

"Come on, Addie! Live a little!" He persuaded, tucking a loose curl behind her ear before cupping her cheek with his hand. "You've finally got your first detention, so there's no need for you to be so panicked about that."

"I'm more panicked about Professor Umbridge finding us, if I'm being honest," Adeline said. As if to prove her point, she looked around the corridor to make sure the short professor wasn't anywhere nearby. "Although...we do never spend anytime alone anymore..."

George's grin grew wider, if that was even possible. "Exactly, Addie. Also, let's not forget you're dating an expert at sneaking around the castle.

"Your detention record says otherwise."

"Oh so you've been looking at my records?" George leaned in so close that his nose was practically pressed up against hers. "It kind of sounds like you're a little obsessed with me."

"Keep making comments like that, and you won't be taking me anywhere tonight."

"So what you're saying is that I have a chance to take you somewhere tonight?"

Adeline ducked her head and tried to hide a smile. Even though she had spent the past minute hesitating, Adeline knew she was going to say yes in the end. She had always been someone who seldom broke the rules, but with George, she could feel herself making exception after exception for the fiery-haired boy.

Adeline also knew fully well that George's smile was her weakness. Even if she was insistent on not doing something, it only took a single smile from George to make her even just reconsider her decision.

Smiling victoriously and not waiting for an answer, George pulled Adeline down the corridor, and their footsteps echoed through the empty castle. She thought that any moment one of the teachers would've caught the pair and sent them to detention, but it seemed as if the whole castle except for them was asleep that night.

"Where are we going?" Adeline laughed as they ran through the castle. "We've got to stop somewhere, you know!"

"Don't know! Figured we'd find something eventually!"

The two ran for what felt like ages on end, until they came to a stop in front of an dark, ornate door that rose high on the wall. Neither George nor Adeline had noticed it when they first turned down the corridor, but both of them couldn't help but stop in their tracks at the sight of the door.

"Since when there was a door here?" Adeline questioned aloud. "I swear, I've been through this corridor so many times before."

George was just as confused as she was. "Fred and I know this castle inside and out. We've never seen this place before." He then looked at her with raised brows and his infamous trouble-making grin. "Wanna see what's inside?"

The reserved part of Adeline told her to say no. But around George, that part of her brain seemed to always go quiet. So she grabbed the door handle and turned to him with an equally mischievous grin. "I'll go first."

"Look who's the troublemaker out of the two of us now," George teased as Adeline pulled open the door. "Mum's not going to be too happy about that. She thought that'd you'd be the good influence on me."

Adeline was about to make a snarky comment in return, but she found herself speechless when she saw the contents of the room. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't a room that looked like a nicer version of the small library back at Grimmauld Place. A large fireplace sat against the back wall, and in front of that was the comfiest-looking red couch Adeline had ever seen. Large shelves lined the stone walls, filled with books from both the wizarding world and the Muggle world.

"Bloody hell..." George whispered to himself as they stepped inside and shut the door tightly behind them. "It's like this room was made for us."

"Let's just hope Umbridge has no idea this room exists."

"I'd rather not think about that wrinkly toad right now," George responded with a shake of his head, "I'd rather like to focus on the fact I finally get some alone time with you, Addie."

"And I finally get some alone time with you, George," Adeline agreed, squeezing on tight to his hand as the two made their way over to the couches by the burning fireplace.

"At least this couch isn't musty like that one in Grimmauld Place," George commented as he flopped down onto the cushy, velvet couch. He wrapped his arm around her, and Adeline settled herself into his side, resting her head comfortably on his chest. "Even the ones at the Burrow isn't as bad as that. The couches at the Burrow are just old, not disgusting."

"I know you were just complaining about the old couches, but I love old couches," She remarked, earning a small noise of amusement from George. "It sounds stupid, but I find them much more comfortable.

"Well, it's a good thing you'll be spending a lot of time at the Burrow in the future," He responded. While it was great cuddling with Adeline on that comfy couch in front of the crackling fire place, George couldn't help but imagine what it would be liking holding her late at night in front of the fireplace at the Burrow, wrapping one of his mum's knit blankets around them as they fell asleep in each others arms on the worn-out couch.

At the same time, Adeline couldn't help but stare at George. From first year through fifth year, Adeline always known him as being simply cute. But somehow between sixth and seventh year, George Weasley had become handsome, and Adeline's heart could barely take it. Somehow, the firelight only seemed to make George even more handsome – which Adeline didn't think was possible up until that point – despite the light from the fire made George's hair turn an even more vivid shade of red. His smile had become much more serene as he relaxed and settled in more to the couch, and his warm brown eyes were tired, yet happy.

He reached over and played with the end of the silver ribbon tied in Adeline's hair. "Do you always have these damn things on?"

"I seem to recall a certain someone refusing to take my blue ribbon off his wrist."

George held a protective hand over his wrist. "You're never getting this back from me. This is my ribbon now."

With a small smile, Adeline reached up to untie the shiny silver ribbon. She placed the ribbon on the small table and her hair tie on her wrist. When she looked back at George, she could see him staring with a strange look on his face. Adeline thought it was nothing at first, but when she noticed that he was staring at her right hand, the realization hit her.

George had noticed the scars on her hand.

Adeline tried to hide her hand and hoped George would think it was just a trick of the light and that nothing was wrong. Unfortunately for her, George was going to let up that easily. "Addie..." He began in a careful voice. "What's on your hand?"

She didn't answer, so George grabbed her hand and held it closer so he could get a better look, and his horror only seemed to grow. "I must learn my place...what the hell? Why's this message scarred on you?"

Adeline still didn't say a word. Her lower lip quivered, and George noticed the way her eye kept blinking repeatedly. "Addie?" He asked again in an even softer voice. "Are you alright?"

That's when Adeline burst into tears.

Only four people had seen Adeline do as much as shed a tear before this point. Three of those people were Estelle, Ophelia, and Melanie – the four girls who had seen Adeline's weakest moments. The fourth person was Remus Lupin back during the boggart lesson, and even then he only managed to capture a glimpse of some tears falling.

However, Adeline had never cried this hard in front of anyone before.

George had no idea what to do. He already wasn't used to seeing girls cry in front of him, let alone Adeline. His brain went blank for a moment as he tried to conjure up some sort of response to his girlfriend's sobs, but George finally came to the decision to grab both her hands and ask, "Do you want to talk about it, Addie? What caused that injury on your hand?"

"It's from my detentions with Professor Umbridge," Adeline finally explained as she wiped her eye, trying to dry her face of its tears even though they couldn't stop falling. "She has some strange blood quill so that every time you do lines, your writing gets cut into your skin."

"Holy hell, Addie...you have to tell people about these things! Let alone me, have you said anything to Professor Flitwick?"

"What do you think is going to happen? Professor Dumbledore spends half of his time hiding away in his office, and all the other teachers – even Professor McGonagall – don't have the power to do anything! That's what her and Professor Umbridge were arguing about the other day! She did it to Harry and probably to any other student who just happens to do something wrong in her class!"

A part of George wanted to think that was all. That the only thing upsetting Adeline were torturous detentions with an evil woman who likely wasn't going away anytime soon.

But George knew Adeline. He knew just how well she concealed her true emotions and tried her best not to let them show. He knew that it would take a lot to make Adeline break and show her true feelings – if she even did that at all.

This is what led George to realize that Umbridge's detentions weren't the only reason Adeline was sobbing in his arms.

"Addie..." He began carefully, holding on extra tightly to her shaking figure. "What else is going on?"

"I can't sleep," Adeline admitted in a voice barely above a whisper. "I've barely been able to get a proper night sleep since June because I have such horrible nightmares about what happened in that graveyard. I wake up screaming, thinking I'm reliving that terrible night over and over again. The only times I don't deal with those nightmares is if I don't sleep at all."

George was about to ask if she was serious, but then all the memories from that summer came flooding back to him. "Is that why I always found you in the library so late at night? Because you were trying to avoid sleeping?"

She didn't respond for a few seconds, but then nodded. "If I get those nightmares, I wake up screaming. And I didn't want anyone finding out and worrying. At least at Hogwarts, I can close the curtains to the four-poster and sound-proof it out so no one can hear me wake up."

George's heart cracked even more when he saw just how beaten-down Adeline looked. He couldn't believe how she could just keep it all held in for so long. His thumb gently grazed over her knuckles. "You've been dealing with this since the Tournament, and you didn't say a thing?"

Adeline shook her head and began to glare at the stone floor with a vehement anger that almost unnerved George. "If I hadn't signed up for that stupid freaking death tournament, none of this would've happened in the first place! Maybe You-Know-Who would be back, but at least my life might be somewhat normal! I wouldn't be going through every day terrified that I'll do the wrong thing and set off yet another chain of rumors about me! I'd be able to see out of both my eyes! I won't even have a damn job because of You-Know-Who and Professor Flitwick being terrified that I'm going to get murdered! I don't have any home I can go back to! But you know what? None of that's going to even matter because I'm probably going to end up dying in a wizarding war I thought ended fourteen years ago!"

"Addie, you're not going to die–"

"Did you not hear the stories about what happened to the Order before? Not just what happened to Harry's parents, but all their friends! They were just barely out of Hogwarts like us, and most of them were wiped out before the war was over! Are you not terrified?"

George was terrified. He didn't say it aloud, but the thought alone of losing someone he loved to the inevitable war kept him up at night, paralyzed with fear. George thought about losing Fred, losing Adeline, losing anyone in his family. Every day, he tried to distract himself with something – whether it be Quidditch, WWW, pulling pranks with Fred, or Adeline. But when George went to bed at night, the only thing that crossed his mind was the fear that one day he'd wake up and someone he loved would be suddenly gone.

So he held her. George wrapped his arms around Adeline and let her cry into his chest, trying to ignore the quiet tears slipping down his cheeks at the same time.

"Addie, you know you're allowed to cry, right?" He eventually told her, drawing small circles on the small of her back in an attempt to comfort her. "Merlin, I'm surprised you don't do it more often with what you've been through."

Adeline thought about all the times she wasn't allowed to cry as a child. The amount of times her parents yelled at her whenever a tear so much as slipped down her cheeks, whether it was from sadness, frustration, or pain. Unlike George, who had been able to so freely express how he was feeling from the moment he came into the world, Adeline was taught that she would not be accepted if she ever showed any sort of weakness.

But with George holding her so carefully against him, Adeline finally felt safe to let out the pent-up tears and emotions she had been hiding for so long.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier," Adeline apologized in a quiet voice once her tears had finally slowed. "I know I've been keeping a lot from you."

"You didn't snap at me. I'd just wish you'd tell me these things. One of these days, I think you're going to explode."

"I thought you liked explosions."

"I like firework explosions, not my girlfriend exploding."

George sent her an indignant look, making Adeline feel a little guilty. "I just..." She sighed. "I don't want you to worry about me."

Despite the topic of conversation, George couldn't help but let out a laugh. "Addie, I'm always worrying about you. Just like you're always worried about me getting my head beat in with a bludger or one of my test products going wrong."

"Quidditch has way too many dangerous injuries to be allowed as a school sport..." Adeline whispered, earning a scoff from George. "I just know this first game is going to give me an anxiety attack in the stands."

"I'll get Estelle to make sure you don't collapse."

"You're going to need a lot more than Estelle to make sure that happens," Adeline joked, earning a loud laugh from George that echoed through the stone chamber.

As Adeline settled into George's side once again, she couldn't help but think that anytime she was around him, she felt like she could just breathe. Whether it was the way he reassured her or how he smiled or even the way he would just hold her hand, Adeline couldn't help but feel safe around him.

Adeline also couldn't help but wonder how she had been so lucky for George Weasley to have fallen in love with her.

In the few quiet seconds, George had managed to gather up the courage to ask Adeline about something he had been wanting since they were fifth years and he was just beginning to figure out his feelings for. "Maybe at the games, you could wear one of my old Quidditch sweaters too," He suggested, a nervous smile beginning to appear. "For good luck."

"For good luck, huh?" Adeline teased, poking him on the cheek – an action that earned a wide smile out of him. "Any other reason?"

"Maybe I'll play a little better whenever I look up in the stands and see you looking all pretty in my Gryffindor sweater."

"I'm not sure how happy Angelina would be if the success on her Quidditch team depended whether I was wearing a certain sweater or not."

"Well, then you can't not wear one of my sweaters," George responded with a chuckle, pressing a kiss to the top of Adeline's head.

George then happened to glance down at his wristwatch and see the time. While George didn't mind the fact that it was past midnight and well after their curfew, he knew Adeline had always had been more hesitant with rule-breaking the way he was. So he held up his wrist so she could see the time and said, "As much as I know we both want to stay here forever, we should probably head back soon. Do you want me to walk you back to Ravenclaw tower?"

The part of her that always followed the rules wanted to agree, but the rest of Adeline wanted to do anything but. "We...we don't have to go just yet."

Adeline wasn't sure if it was the light from the fire or maybe even her own hopeful imagination, but she could've sworn that George's face turned a light shade of pink. Even though he was trying to think about anything else in that moment, George's mind ran rampant as he thought about the implications of Adeline's suggestion.

George also tried not to think about the bed that appeared in the corner of the large room.

"We could stay here for the night." She continued, toying with the hem of her black pleated skirt and trying to distract herself from just how nervous she was over the suggestion. "If that's alright with you, at least."

"Yeah," George confirmed with a shy smile as he gently cupped her cheek. "We can stay here for the night." He then leaned in to kiss her, and the two didn't let go of each other for a long time.

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a/n:

hi guys!!

i was really not intending for it to take me over two weeks to update, but i really hope this 3.5k word chapter makes up for it hee hee !! i feel like i say every chapter is one of my favorites, but this one *definitely* is one of my favorites.

anyways, i hope you all enjoyed the chapter as much as i did !! i hope you all have a lovely day, and i'll see you at the next update :))

- g ♡